Joan Miró's 'L'oiseau du matin' fetches €2.8 million at auction

Joan Miró's painting 'L'oiseau du matin' ('The morning bird' in English) has sold in a Sotheby's auction for €2,831,000 in Paris on Wednesday. 

The auction house wrote that painting captures the "fusion of poetic lyricism, formal experimentation and semiotic complexity that characterizes the painter's masterpieces" in their description of the item.

Sotheby's considers 'L'oiseau du matin' a precursor to the "disturbing cosmic mythology" of Miró's magnum opus the 'Constellation' series (1940-41).

The work "demonstrates the artist's dedication to linear precision and color," and is a painting "full of dreamlike creatures and animated forms that bring to life a volcanic landscape of bold primary tones and intense, vibrant energy."

Miró painted 'L'oiseau du matin' in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, just before the Second World War broke out. The artist's paintings from the late 1930s, the auction house adds, show commitment to the deterioration of the political situation in Spain and represent a key stage in the clarification of his artistic vision.

Joan Miró: evocative icon, 'surrealist before surrealism', and proud Catalan

Joan Miró is one of the most iconic artists ever to emerge from Catalonia. 

Primarily a painter but also well known for his sculpture, Miró’s unique, colourful, expressionistic style has transcended the art world, leading him to be one of the most universally recognised and respected figures of the 20th century. 

Marko Daniel, director of the Miró Foundation in Barcelona, believes that many more people are familiar with the “iconic paintings and images” of the artist than they may realise. He was one of the “foremost painters of the last century” who worked until the 1970s, and produced many works based on the Catalan landscape and nature, “but then very quickly went into exploring a more surreal world, a world of imagination.”